


R&R

by tinx_r



Category: Riptide - Fandom
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-05
Updated: 2010-06-05
Packaged: 2017-10-09 22:14:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/92173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinx_r/pseuds/tinx_r
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being alone isn't always easy...</p>
            </blockquote>





	R&R

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hardboiledbaby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hardboiledbaby/gifts).



> 1973.

The army would have paid for separate rooms - they did their best for men on leave from the front - but I looked at Cody while we waited at the desk, and before the clerk asked I said "Twin".

We didn't unpack - months in-country did that to you. Even in the nice clean Honolulu hotel, with the corners of our bed-sheets folded down crisp and white, we still needed to be ready to move.

Cody asked me if I felt like hitting the beach, maybe surfing, but I sent him off without me. He's a beach bunny - he feels the same way about waves as I do about the sky - and the ocean's the surest way to get him to wind down.

Me, I wasn't ready to get out there in amongst people yet.

I took a shower for what felt like a month. Let me tell you, after you been in the jungle up to your neck, standing in a clean white shining bathroom with that endless hot water running through your hair... man, that's one way to heaven.

I followed it up with a nap.

Those sheets were just as fresh and crisp as they looked, and I've never felt anything finer. But sleep was far away, so I just lay and watched the white, fluffy clouds - American clouds - and rubbed my feet on those smooth clean sheets. And waited.

Thing is, when you've walked the trails that me and Cody have, you just don't breathe right on your own. By the time he came back, I was starting a cold sweat, and although Charley was 6000 miles away my heart was racing like he might be creeping up the stairs.

"You too, huh?" Cody stopped inside the door and breathed in deep, then turned and locked the door.

I sat up. "Cody - "

He came over, sat beside me, touched my arm. "You were right about the beach, pal. And right about the room. Listen, you feel like some coffee?"

With his touch, the world settled back into place. "Yeah." I breathed deep. "You know what, man? We'll go surfing tomorrow, okay? You and me, together."

Cody grinned at me, that easy, warm grin that's brighter than the sun. "There's no hurry, Nick. We got five days, huh? Five whole days... together."

We never did go surfing. The blessed peace of a room of our own after months in canvas barracks... we drank a little, smoked a little, cried more than a little. Spun truth and bullshit in roughly equal quantities and made each other promises we knew we couldn't keep.

One promise we did keep, though. Through it all, through everything the army threw at us and everything that came after, we stuck together. An' I swear, to this day, that's the one thing that kept us alive.


End file.
